Today George Reisman writing for the Ludwig von Mises Institute touched on a topic that has recently come to my attention, the proliferation of federal agencies who have taken to arming and equipping their own private militias.

These are regulatory bureaucracies not law enforcement agencies and yet have taken on some contrived law enforcement authority as an excuse to purchase and pass out guns to selected employees.

The Dept. of Education, Housing and Urban Development and Social Security Administration appear to be the latest paper pushers to assign themselves the authority to carry guns.

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Recently we learned that the National Weather Service, an office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) oversees Maritime Fisheries. Under that guise they feel the need to create an armed militia, because those dadgummed fish poachers are some mean hombres.

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Never mind the fact that the US Coast Guard already patrols off shore fisheries and inspects the commercial fishing fleet for compliance. Never mind the fact that both federal and State Fish and Wildlife Services also have authority to regulate the size of the catch and the fishing seasons. They make the rules and the Coast Guard enforces it.

When did this start? If they are being armed, does this mean they have arrest powers? Why the heck do Social Security Administration employees need to be able to arrest American citizens? If they do not have the authority to arrest anyone and they want to be armed for their own safety, why can't they apply for a CCW and pick up a Glock 19 at Cabela’s like everyone else? And why is this coming out of MY PAYCHECK!? We are often told how impossible it is to lower taxes or balance the budget, yet we are spending hand over fist on crap like this, not just the guns and the ammo but the training, the insurance, the liability, the lawyers, and on and on and on... not to mention the erosion of freedom that comes from giving low level bureaucrats this kind of power. Who do we have to fire to get some common sense around here?